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Euro 2010

August 7

Living a dream and the dream keeps keeps getting better !

Venice is simply gorgeous. Even after all the hype and all my heightened expectations, the city managed to thrill me more than I bargained for. Venice doesn't need my endorsement for its status as one of the most amazing cities in the world. Even if you were aesthetically challenged, you would still find the city interesting enough just for the novelty in the concept of a city based entirely over water. I dont know about others but the first five minutes immediately after coming out of the Venice train station were pretty overwhelming. Partly because I had never seen anything like this before and partly because of the thought that I cannot take my hostel address to a cab driver and ask him to drive. There is no road :)

My day began at 5:30 AM after just about 3 hrs sleep last night. The sleep was hardly my problem but Italian way of doing things clearly was. I wanted to check out at 6:15 AM and rush to the train station to sort out my problems regarding getting my ticket to Venice. But it turned out that I couldn't check out before 7 AM even if I wanted to. The only way I was able to leave at 6:15 AM was to forgo my 5 euros that I gave as deposit. I was already making negative generalisations about italians when a really nice guy stopped his car next to me and offered me a lift to the train station. Just a quick reminder to me that one should be careful about their generalizations drawn over two days and two or three instances. Italian work ethics isn't the most highly regarded but there are many nice people here too. My hostel manager clearly was not one of them !

Anyways, it took me 10 mins. to get the tickets to Venice. Basically there was a technical glitch in the 'Eurostar' system and trenitalia couldn't dispense the tickets. Now I had just one little problem - 5 hrs to kill before the train starts :) I was to some extent happy about this. My camera battery had run out yesterday evening. So I couldn't take some really nice pics I wanted. This was my chance. Plus this was also my chance to try something that I backed out from yesterday. Climbing 441 stairs and back :) So I went back to the pontevecchio, all the while taking nice pics and then I came to the 'Dome'. The only way you can reach the top of this tall tower is through 441 steps that get you to the panoramic view of the city. There was also the customary caution for heart patients. I just wanted to do it. And yessss I did it :) I did it immediately after having already walked through the city for more than 2 hrs and I did it with 3.5 kilo backpack on my shoulders. 882 steps of fun interspersed every now and then by a window offering stunning view outside cilminating in a fascinating panoramic view of entire Florence and more. I felt fitter and better than I ever did :)

And then I boarded the eurostar never quite figuring out where I was supposed to sit. So I just sat at the window. Its Italy and this is cool. What is not cool is the 1 euro charge for using the station restroom and time limit of 7 mins to finish 'whatever' u r doing. Grrrr !! They start hammering the door ...

And 2 hrs later I came out of the Venice station trying to still decide between a bus and a cab and whoaaa ! Water water everywhere and all so beautiful. As I said, you may not find the beauty so deep but the experience of a water based transport system and kids doing homework literally a metre away from the river was pretty awesome. And even more awesome was the 'Piazza San Marco', the foremost tourist attraction within Venice. Its probably the only place I know where the pigeons fly around and sit over your shoulder for rest and take food from your hand happily if you choose to offer. The whole atmosphere is just so ethereal, its almost unreal. There is of'course a chance that I liked it more than most people might do, but ya I mean how many times 2, 42 and 52 are not buses or trams but numbers on the boats that connect your home to the market ? You have to really be here to try and understand :)

Anyways I will fold for now because I need to get to the Marco Polo airport pretty early tomorrow to catch the flight to Paris. Venice was so good, but Paris might just be a complete new level. Afterall apna Azhar is gonna be there to double the fun. Yooohhhoooooo !

ummm.... Ok... so its boat numbet 2 to the airport...cool :)

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August 6

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain

There is no good way to describe Florence. The whole city reminds me of 'Chandni Chowk' with ten times more cleanliness and 20 times higher style quotient. The only good way to enjoy Florence is to walk through it. And I walked .... a lot .... a good 5 hours :)

The day began super early back in my hotel in Lucca because we were all required to check out by 12 noon. Since there were final lectures scheduled since 9 AM, we all packed our stuff and checked out before the the lectures began. Finally we all got our course completion certificates and our final lavish lunch probably for a long long time :(

I had a bus ticket to Florence at 3 PM but some of my friends from the course were also coming to Florence by train. At the spur of the moment I decided to forget about my bus ticket and join them in train. These are just the sort of decisions that make travelling alone such fun :) Imagine deciding something like this with a feminine carry-on with you !! Huh ... The train journey was lots of fun as is expected when five guys - an american, a slovenian, a german, an italian and a czech guy decide to spend time together. And ya, I was the american there :)

My immediate first impression of Florence wasn't great. Plus it didn't help that it can be very hard to communicate with people if you dont speak italian. I took a cab to my hostel which is definitely nothing like the hostels in US. Coming from a 5 star hotel, the contrast was espescially hard hitting. But then again I barely spent 30 mins in my room and set out to explore the famous city. The most amazing thing about this place is the number of shops here. It seems the whole city is a huge marketplace interspersed with magnificient buildings, domes and museums. I was told that the 'ponte vecchio' or 'old bridge' was something I definitely shouldn't miss. So I just walked amidst literally hundreds of tourists buying thousands of knicknacks towards the old bridge and yes - It was beautiful !! I grew up listening to people raving about how 'romantic' Italy is. But nothing could possibly have prepared me for what I saw there and nothing I write here could possibly describe the wonderful feeling I had standing there. You have to be there to feel the romance. And yes, dont forget to keep your feminine carry-on with you :) Other wise you will be stuck like me watching other living the moments of their life.

Finally I walked to some other interesting places like the dome and the church and the museum and strolled across to the railway station to buy tickets for my travel to Venice tomorrow morning. There I met another friend from the course. Ahe was travelling to Munich and waiting for her train. Well somehow the description on the display board about her train was all weird and somehow I could not purchase tickets to venice after several attempts. Here is the lesson for all of you coming to Italy first time - Their cities are beautiful, people nice and administration - inconvenient to say the least !

Anyways she boarded the train hoping she gets to her place and I came back to my hostel hoping I figure out some way to get to venice tomorrow. A year back I might have fretted about this situation but I guess I have almost begun enjoying the uncertainities involved in exploring a new city which makes travelling so much more fun. I just know I will find a way out to reach, what most people agree, is one of the most beautiful city in the world. Venice - Here I come !

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August 5

This was supposed to be yet another day of NMR course work, dinner and wine. I had already decided that I wont post anything new on my blog today because there was hardly going to be any new experience to write about. Well I wasn't entirely right :)

For starters, instead of bright sunshine that greeted us every morning, there was a thunderstorm. It was raining pretty heavily when the first lecture began. But by the time we had coffee break, the rain had mostly stopped and a lovely mist was glancing past the beautiful tuscany landscape. Everyone had their cameras out :) It was sony vs canon vs nikon to get the best snapshot of the breathtakingly beautiful mountains. There was a time during the evening when a lecture on computational ananlysis was stopped for 30 seconds so that people could gaze at the amazing rainbow formation outside the window. Once again click click click :)

This was the last full day of course which also meant the last day we were gonna get unlimited food and wine. It is 2 AM and we were all there at the gallery all this while. And no tonight was not just about the wine or the 'heineken' which most people bought. Tonight was about people playing piano, people playing pool and guys singing songs :) Two of the girls really did a fantastic job at the piano. The guys singing along were no less impressive ! Some songs english, some italiano. The pool games were fun. You can imagine how much fun it was from the fact that just one game lasted over 2 hrs. Drunk head, shaking hands and high spirits !

I had the opportunity to discuss some interesting ideas also over the dinner. Prof Boelens is espescially a lot of fun to talk to. If it wasn't for the early class tomorrow morning, we all would have spent the night in the gallery as well. But right now it is gud night to all of them and you as I need to pack the bags again.

Tomorrow it is Florence ! Yaaayyyaaayyy

August 4

Definitely the most fun day of the course so far ! I haven't had such a good time in ages. A perfect day, nothing short :)

The day started with another lecture by Dr. Palmer and again it was infused with terms like spherical harmonics and stochastic hamiltonian. But guess what I read abt all this last night and it made a lot more sense! I actually understood and may I say liked the lecture. The lecture was followed by a brief exercise session and then it was time for the trekking...yoooohhooooo. I could go on and on about how good the whole experience was but let me put it this way. Close to four hours through woods and mountainous terrain can be daunting but if you are travelling through one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, you will hardly be aware of the time. In fact you won't even want it to finish.

It has been more than three days with the other students in the course and by now we may not be the best of friends but we are certainly more than just acquantaince. This made hiking all the more fun. It was amazing to find out those little know details about other cultures and societies and the same time get an awareness about the way the world perceives your country. It was not a surprise to find that every person out here know 'Shahrukh Khan' but I was pleasantly taken aback by their knowledge of indian weddings! Most percieve our festivals and weddings to be awesome, bollywood to be fun and traffic system simply atrocious.

If you thought that we came back completely exhausted from the trekking and went to sleep then you are so wrong. In fact the exact opposite happened. The last two days there were poster sessions, and hence we would typically go to bed by 10:30 or max 11 PM. Tonight no posters. Instead a conference dinner. (Not buffet but a full 5 course dinner served individually). The dinner and the post-dinner camaraderie lasted till 1:15 AM :) We cracked jokes, made fun of each other, even danced a bit on soft music ! (yeahh me too)I wont bore you again with the food details but ya it just keeps getting better. I don't know how I still have the energy to write this post. May be I am too happy about the way this day went :)

Getting to learn from the best people about the best tools in your field, getting arguably the best accomodation and food possible for almost four days now and getting to see some of the most breathtaking views anywhere in the world with people so diverse and yet each one so friendly and fun. I believe these are some of the best moments of my life and I shall cherish them forever.

I will start posting some pics on my webpage very soon. So stay tuned and have a wonderful day whichever part of the world you are in.

Love u guys. Salut !

Ohh ya ... red wine is just so not happening compared to white one !

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August 3

A most exhaustive day in terms of work and a most special day in terms of food.

Not only did we again have a veryyy long series of lectures and exercises, they were 'purely' mathematical. The sort of stuff where you see a lot of integrals, exponential terms, assumptions and 'hence it follows that'. Most of us are too busy using the final products dished out to us by the theoreticians. But in an advanced course like this, my limitations with full blown mathematical derivations, specially calculus based ones, was truly exposed. Just when I started feeling depressed with it came lunch time :)

I was told I would like the food here. But I wasn't very sure myself. Even in US, I never really liked any cuisine outside the indian food. But the food here has been insanely amazing. Everyday there is a lunch and dinner buffet (plus of'course an awesome breakfast). The best part is everyday the menu changes and there hardly has been a meal here where I wasn't overwhelmed with its good taste. For example the dinner today had among other things, soft lamb curry with lamb roll and seabrin fish. If a regular fish eater like me says it was the best I had in ages, then trust me it must be good. There were lots of other items for which I dont even know the names. All perfect. And ya of'course the desserts. One of the desserts today was cream topped pudding with honey sauce and sprinkle of wine. As always, out of the world. I believe, the day I finish this course and stop getting such lavish meals 3 times a day, I will drop into acute depression ! In short - This is THE FOOD.

The day two of poster sessions was very exciting, specially since I got to know of some more softwares that I could utilise for my work. In fact, I got a copy of a nice software from another student from Denmark ! The session just ended and we are all planning to hang out in the terrace for a while longer before we hit the sac. Trekking tomorrow after 3 hrs of lecture. Yayyyyy. Finally mai ghumne niklunga :)

Cya guys. Thanks for catching up on my updates ! Bbyee

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August 2

This is officially the longest academic day I ever had ! 13 hrs of lectures and exercises puncuated by only 2 coffee breaks and an awesome lunch ! I just finished presenting my first ever poster. Felt very very nice :) Specially getting all the feedback from people ranging from those who developed it all to those who are as new to it as I am. It was surely one of the few moments when it felt terrific to be in science. Very rare few moments I must admit :)

The best moment of the day was the last slide in the last presentation which actually showed how analogous musical notes were to NMR Pulse sequences. All the presentations were good but this one was special. It had music, movie clips, almost no equations and yet an amazingly lucid presentation of concepts. A close contender for the moment of the day was when I tasted the 'grape laden tiramisu' in lunch. Fantastico ! I eat a different dessert in every meal and each one is better than the last one. When this course ends, food is something I will miss the most :) After all its not daily that I get apricot pista mixture along with other items of breakfast ! The best part is every meal is buffet. Eat till you die ! Drink till you remember no more :)

But ya another 13 hr long work day coming tomorrow. So I better get some sleep.

Thanks for reading updates about the trip. I love u all. Ciao

Ohh and ya french women are super awesome :D

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August 1

Whenever things are going too good, remember massive trouble is lurking round the corner :) I don't know about you guys but for me this has been a recurring theme for the past so many years of my life. But the good news, no matter what the trouble, it all ends well in the end. And if it doesn't then kahani abhi baaki hai mere dost.

I was supposed to reach Paris at 8:50 AM today morning but somehow the flight made it into the Charles de Gaulle airport before 7:30 AM. This wasn't a particularly great news for me because my next Delta connection to Pisa, Italy was only at 3:40 PM which meant I had 8 hrs to kill in terminal 2G. Grrr!!! Well I had a still bigger problem though ! My 3:40 flight meant that I would reach Pisa so late that the last of the scheduled vehicles to take me to Lucca (course location) would have gone. Lucca is more than an hour drive from Pisa and I had no clue how to go about it :(

Anyways, I had nothing to loose at this stage. So as soon as I got down from the flight, I went to the Air France office to enquire if they have any flight before 3 PM to Pisa. They had three. Two were totally full and the other one had only 1 seat ! I would have grabbed without a thought except there were again two problems. I paid the air-fare to Delta and I was going to fly Air France. Secondly the flight was to depart in 40 mins which meant there was no way my 'checked in' luggage could be transferred from Delta to Air France.

And then I got help. This is just the sort of help which reaffirms my conviction that most people in this world are nice and helpful and it is because of them that our planet is still beautiful. You may feel that I am getting carried away because someone helped me. But think about this. There is this chinese guy sitting in his nice office frantically making phone calls and taking printouts so that an Indian guy who didn't even purchase tickets from his airline gets to his destination few hours early. He could have just said 'Sorry'. But he tried and he got me in the next flight to Pisa and re-routed my baggage in some way only he knows, so that it reaches me.

I was in Italy by 12 noon and I got the drive to Lucca quite comfortably. I of'course didn't get my luggage by the same flight but the EMBO staff went and collected it from the airport in the evening on my behalf :) I was busy discussing NMR with other scientists over 'chardonnay' you see !

Now for my first impressions about europe in the last few hours -

1. French women are really as beautiful as the world knows. Infact more :)

2. Italian landscape is extraordinary. I really liked it.

3. Staying in a 5 star room makes Europe far more beautiful than it ordinarily will be, especially if you are not paying :)

4. I really dont like italian food much except the desserts which are the best anywhere.

Well after the dinner and wine, we were given a 400 page book as the course reference (mainly as a stern reminder to get the focus back). The class starts at 9 tomorrow and I hope I wake up in time. Had a really extraordinary last 24 hrs. Time to sleep. Hope to keep posting more soon ! ciao !!

July 31

1725 - Boarding call for the Paris flight. Sweeeeett :) Hope to report again from Paris or Italy as, when and if I reach there :) 1645 - OK so I am now leaving for Vienna. I am leaving for Paris. Wow!!! I dont believe this. As long as I reach somewhere in Europe sometime tomorrow !!

1621 - OK they have put me on a flight to Austria ??!! Dont know wats going on !

1530 - My flight to JFK is indefinitely postponed Wow so I am guaranteed to miss my flight to US. Damn they better do something abt it. grrr !!!

1450 - Yaayyy, Reached the airport !

1345 - Left for airport. Saketh says there is a huge traffic blockade on the route. O-Oh ! Troubled start ..

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